PORT ANGELES — Charges against two Sequim adult-care home operators charged with manslaughter in 2005 have been dropped at the request of the prosecution.
Carolyn Sue Hardwick, 61, and John Kenneth Packer, 36, were charged with two counts of second-degree manslaughter, one count of first-degree criminal mistreatment and two counts of second-degree criminal mistreatment in the cases of five former patients who either died at the couple’s shuttered Garden Grove Adult Family Center or were injured while patients there.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams earlier this month dismissed all of the charges based on a motion filed by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ann Lundwall on the first day of the trial.
“It sure took them long enough to figure out they didn’t have a case,” Packer’s Port Orchard attorney, Ron Hess, said.
“We never felt they had a case to start with.
“They went through three different prosecutors, but we could never get anyone to agree with us until the day of trial.”
Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said she and Lundwall decided to request the case be dismissed when a “key witness” was too ill to testify.
“This essential witness had severe health problems,” Kelly said.
“We requested that this case be dismissed without prejudice so we could file again in the future.”
The state Department of Social and Health Services shut down Garden Grove, which operated in Sequim at 510 Pine Court, in late 2002.
Both Hardwick and Packer were free on their own recognizance since the charges were filed in February 2005.
Sequim police began investigating care practices at Garden Grove in December 2002, the month after the state Department of Social and Health Services shut it down based on a state investigation into claims made by residents and their families.
Charges of manslaughter in the deaths of Mary Virant, 80, and Mearle Miller, 85, were dismissed.
Also dismissed were charges of criminal mistreatment involving former patients Ida Jones, Evelyn Easterly and Alfred Dusing.
Jones, 80, who died of congestive heart failure at Garden Grove on Aug. 18, 2002.
Easterly and Dusing were both transferred to other care facilities.
